Archive for March, 2014

IBM BigFix can not only provide software distribution but also Operating System Deployment (or OSD). OSD includes the ability to upgrade operating systems (such as Windows XP to Windows 10) but also perform bare metal installations. I’ve recorded two edited video’s of OSD in action for an upgrade and bare-metal installation.

OSD is a feature of IEM’s Lifecycle Management service and a lot of detailed documentation is available here. My colleagues have now produced an excellent step-by-step guide of the setup and use of OSD.

Topics include:

Setup of OSD

Deploying the Windows 7 Image to a Windows XP system

Bare Metal Imaging

Quick Reference Guides

This guide can be downloaded from IBM developerWorks from here. If you have any questions on OSD, you can post them to the IEM forum.

MaaS360’s Secure Productivity Suite (SPS) or secure container is available on iOS, Android and now Windows Phone. Clients have been particularly interested in MaaS360’s secure container for Windows Phone. The different mobile experience and something different is quite a discussion point in live demonstrations.

Organisations realise that Windows Phone will be a viable third force in mobile devices. Windows Phone 8 is just beginning to see broader adoption in the U.S. and in Europe, and I’d agree in Australia and Asia Pacific too.

I’m still looking for a OS X / iPhone Reflector equivalent for Windows Phone (if possible) for live demonstrations. So for the clients who have asked, I wanted to share a number of screen captures of Windows Phone 8 running the MaaS360 SPS (‘secure container’).

You’ll notice the MaaS360 SPS not only features email and calendar, but also the ability the securely share documents and your internal web resources via the secure browser.

I look forward to doing more testing with the Windows Phone 8 and MaaS360, and demonstrating this capability to our clients.